 All right. Good evening, everybody. I just wanted to let our members that are here know that we do not have a quorum this evening. I was informed rather last minute by several members that they would not be able to be here, and given that at six o'clock. We're still missing people. Safe to say we will have a quorum either way. We are still going to move forward and have Dr. Dominguez do her presentation. What that means is is we won't follow the agenda that was posted. Since we won't be having our meeting. What will happen instead is that Dr. Dominguez will do her presentation will open it up to questions only will not be able to have a discussion. Or share any thoughts that will lead to a full discussion of the board. We will also open it up to questions from members of the public if we have any that would like to ask questions. And for members of the public that are here this evening, we will not because this is no longer an official meeting of the cab. The questions and any comments that you provide after the presentation will not be entered into public record. This is no longer an official meeting. With that being said, for our. Danielle, I'm so sorry if I may interrupt. I just want to also state that we do have interpretation services available during this meeting. Yes, I was just getting to that. No worker use of also for the host. We have one additional cab member in the waiting room that needs to be promoted. Thank you for members of the audience that need interpretation services. We do have an interpreter on hand this evening. Alejandro, would you like to go ahead and translate that for us. I'm Alejandro and I'm the interpreter tonight and for the people who need interpretation in Spanish, please use the symbol that indicates the world in the bottom part of the screen. And there you can access the channel that says Spanish. Perfect. Thank you very much. And do we have the interpretation feature going right now. Thank you. All right. With that, I will go ahead now and introduce a doctor. Danielle, I'd love. I'm sorry, but you made that announcement so appropriately right at six o'clock and we still had a couple of cab members coming into this. I'm not aware of what is now happening. I apologize for the interruption, but I would love for that announcement to be made again. At this point, if, if we have any other cab members come in, I'll take it upon myself to message them in chat, but if we can just make the announcement as to what we're doing tonight, that'd be great. Thank you. Absolutely. Yes, for the cab members that just joined us. Thank you. We do not have a quorum this evening of the board. So we will not be holding our official cab meeting. What will happen instead since we have Dr. Dominguez with us this evening, we'll go ahead and have her present. I'm not allowed at the end of the presentation to ask questions. However, we ask that you refrain from having any discussion amongst board members as that will be a violation of the Brown Act. In addition to that, we will also allow members of the public who are attending this evening to ask questions and provide any comment that they would like, however, since it's no longer an official meeting of the board. We will not be entering any of that information to the official record. So with that, I will go ahead and introduce Dr. Dominguez. So this evening we have Dr. Daniela Dominguez here with us this evening to present on self and community care as an act of resistance. The presentation is on caring for the self mentally and physically well engaged in community work about Dr. Daniela Dominguez. Dr. Dominguez is an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco and the chief executive officer at on the margins. She is a licensed psychologist and professional clinical counselor with a special interest in libertarian psychology, anti racism migrant justice and gender and sexuality matters. Previously her program of research has focused on understanding how black, indigenous and people of color cope with stress and use specific strategies on our strategies to draw upon resiliency is to achieve positive health. In 2020, the Society of Counseling Psychologists honored her with the early career award for distinguished distinguished professional contributions to counseling psychology. In 2021, the Society of Counseling Psychologists honored her with the social justice award for her demonstrated evidence of achieving community change that supports disenfranchised or press groups. And I also just want to add that I've had the privilege of hearing Dr. Dominguez speak at a previous event and totally loved everything that you presented on and I'm super excited to have you here with us today. And now I will turn it over to you. Thank you so much. Can you hear me. Okay, and then can you see my presenter slides. Yes. Okay, excellent. Thank you so much for having me here. I know that I'm presenting a little bit earlier. And so I will try to end at seven o'clock, because I definitely don't want to take more of your time than what we initially had talked about. It's such a pleasure to be here with you today and to see familiar faces. And for those of you who I cannot see. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Daniela Dominguez, and I am an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco's Santa Rosa campus I lead the marriage and family therapy program. And also as Neil was saying, I'm the chief executive officer at on the margins and so I am super excited to talk to you today. I do want to say, really sometimes that these presentations over zoom, because I cannot be with you in the same way in the same way in which we, you know, we're used to being in community. Please let me know if you have any questions in the chat box, and I will try to also speak slowly because I do know that there's interpretation happening. So today, I'm going to be talking about self and community care as acts of resistance. And let's go ahead and just start. I want to start my presentation with one of my ancestors, Audrey Lord. And can you see her beautiful picture on the slides. After she was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer. She wrote in her book, a burst of light about self care as a political act as a radical act of resistance. And so I'm grounding my presentation on her words which I will share with you right now. Audrey Lord self care was about preserving herself. And it was about self preservation in a world that she believed and she could feel and she could experience, and quite accurately, that was hostile to her identity as a black queer woman, a woman that didn't want to see her for who she was. And so she made that very clear and she shared it with us in her book by saying, caring for myself is not self indulgence. It is self preservation. And that is an act of political warfare. What is about self care have really inspired many in queer and feminist and movement circles. And I know that she has deeply inspired me so I want to go ahead and just slow down and read that again because I find it so critically important she said, caring for myself is not self indulgence. It is self preservation, and that is an act of political warfare. It's really interesting right that today we see the ways in which entire businesses have created complex marketing strategies that speak to self care as the purchasing of beauty products. I know I don't know about you but when I scroll through my Instagram, I'm bombarded by those messages about purchase this face mask, do this to lose weight to look thinner to all of these beauty messages. The messages are so prevalent to the point that some folks are now thinking that self care is about purchasing products. And the fact that self care has been co opted by the beauty industry has actually contributed to $10 billion in in this industry alone. For Audrey Lord her definition of self care was really different right for her caring for oneself was not about purchasing it was not about capitalism. It was about race, gender class and social justice. There's more than avocado toast and yoga mats and kale chips and face mask and all of that. For her it was an act of taking care of herself for survival. So I want to ask you, you've heard me talk a little bit about Audrey Lord definition of self care about the beauty industries definition of self care. But how do you define self care. What does that look like for you. What do others maybe friends, loved ones colleagues see you doing when you are self caring. How do you actually feel and that could be. How do you feel in your body and your spirit, what's coming through your mind. When you nourish yourself, what do you feel when you nourish yourself, when you turn to yourself when you look inward. What do you love to once notice about you that would let them know that you've actually been taking care of yourself, even just a little bit more right. What would we be noticing about you, the people in the zoom gallery that they get to see you I don't know how often you meet, but what would let them know. Hmm. My colleague has been self caring. About this presentation, I would love for you to think about your own engagement and self healing processes. So in preparation for this presentation. I also thought about what self care looks like for me, and I see that people are typing things Thank you so much. And I see walking exercise therapy as self care. And we have therapists in the room which is amazing. I know I know you know your stuff. I'm talking with family. Oh my God, my media is important. Being out in nature hiking. And yes, doing absolutely nothing. So I thought about, you know how I also self care. And here's me last Saturday at a drag brunch moving the way for shaking the body. And for me, self care is actually about breaking bread and community about spending time with friends and family and spaces where I feel safe and loved. And this is where I can come as my whole self as my queer Latina self. And so I also make sure that I do other things as well to restore and to, you know, nourish my body I take walks I try to do that. Sometimes, I will be honest, it can be like 20 minutes because of the way that the week is going. And sometimes about two hours depending on on what that that week is is giving me so. And sometimes self care is a little bit easier than others. But for me, it can look like stepping back like Richardson was saying, you know, just simply saying, I'm out. I'm going to go ahead and put my feet up and call it a day and just express my gratitude for being here today. And sometimes it's about setting boundaries and resisting some people who are hoping to extract value out of out of my labor. And so we'll talk a little bit about that. But if I don't know about you but I don't know if you've been to presentations on self care. Over the past year, but we've been going through a lot and it's been really interesting to me some people have have been adjusting their presentations but some other folks keep talking about, you know, these one to 10 step lists about this is how you self care. The reality is that if you're like most Americans, you're probably finding it really difficult to self care at this point in time right, or maybe even before coven, you know limited resources space, maybe a lot of us don't have the time or the energy. And if that is you, I want to say I totally feel you. I know it is hard. And sometimes we feel even like obligated to self care like we have to follow that one to 10 list. And we got to acknowledge and be compassionate that sometimes that's really hard. So in the current socio economic system, most Americans have to work long hours to survive. And in those long hours as many was saying, she's man though yes during sometimes during those long days. It's difficult to choose me right we're just like working and hustling to survive. If you rent an apartment or a home in Sonoma County, if you have children, you probably know what I'm talking about how difficult it can be to step back. Sometimes folks folks work long hours simply to make ends meet. And we also in addition to that in addition to the hardship that we've experienced in a region because of high, you know, housing costs and all else. We live in a culture that values individuals who press press press right people who are constantly on the first ones who arrive at the office and the last ones to leave the office so we value and we, we admire folks who hustle or reachable if I email you and you get back to me. I celebrate your prompt reply. That's that's the culture that sometimes we live in. Well, let's just call it that's the culture that we live in. We often use phrases like dig deep, you know, like, échale slay you got it and that it's easy to put it. And even during the weekend. Many of us, when we're taking time off from work, we're trying to rest. We experienced that outside voice I don't know about you but that outside voice that comes inside and tells you that maybe you shouldn't be resting that you shouldn't be kicking back. That is the voice of this oppressive system that tells us that we have to grind constantly. I call it the voice of capitalism, maybe you might call it something different. So, the current social structure, which is, I would underline based on racial capitalism has created a grind culture that wants us to keep going, no matter what, and even in the middle of a global pandemic we're doing this, we're grinding. And grind culture is the idea that status is achieved by constantly being on and available. And many of us actually wake up. And the first thing that we do is we check our email, and we start responding, even before we've had breakfast. We live in a culture in which many of the institutions in our county value our labor and our capital the capital that we can generate the institution, much more than our health and our well being. So in this culture, we are often a commodity, we're turned into a commodity through which value is extracted. Do you ever feel like that. Or is that just me. Right, like we're, we're stretched thin. And we're often seen as one dimensional, like our identity is only our professional or occupational position. Like whenever I interact with people I'm sure that people are like, ah, la doctora Dominguez la profesora la universidad sabrasisco. But I'm also, in addition to being a professor I'm also a Tia. I am also a friend, you know, a volunteer and activist. So the fact that that our system just kind of reduces us to that one dimension can be really detrimental to us. And in this culture right productivity is often presented as a function of our worth. So if we produce, we're more valuable. And then what happens is that because we see others participating in this grand culture. Sometimes that blocks our voice. Like, when we're about to say you know what I think, I think I need to push the pause button. Then we start looking around and we're like well but my comadre or my comadre or my colleague. They're hustling so maybe I shouldn't say that because I don't want to be that person who says that I need to rest. And then I describe this society in this way as a grind culture. I hear violence. I hear dehumanization. And so the question is, if this grind culture is violent, and it's dehumanizing us, everybody who was under this, this white supremacy structure, then why do we keep engaging in it. You and your institution are already resisting the system. And if this description doesn't fully apply to you to you to your institution to those around you that's incredible that's amazing I celebrate that. I know that many of you are are working on this, but I think it would be helpful for us to start kind of amplifying to dig deeper right in this work of healing justice. Let me look real quick at our comments. I have someone say as he is la vida yes as he is la vida that can be really difficult. And as he is la vida we have to think about okay so he has this system of white supremacist extracting values, value out of us were stretched really thin, but beyond that. This is having significant repercussions in our health. So why talk about grind culture, because we need to understand its impact on our physical and our emotional health, as well as its impact in our relationships. So it is interesting that we know from from the science that high levels of stress can make the heart rate and our blood pressure increase, it can shoot up. It can actually experience if that's too high heart attacks and even heart failure, especially among those of us that have underlying heart conditions. And yet, we continue to participate in the system so the science is out there. People and healing justice circles are telling us slow down. Audrey Lord is telling us that self care is an act of political resistance, and we keep grinding. That's not good for us. And Sonoma County, the thing about it is, we're not like other communities right like our unique local community has been through it. And this part really concerns me so we are dealing with trauma for multiple reasons. So fires, racial injustice, the pandemic. And on top of our own personal experiences right because life still happens we're still, you know, moms and Diaz and professors and we're having to manage and cope with a lot of different other demands and responsibilities. And while we're coping with all of this with this compounding trauma. Again, we're expected to perform. So if we truly want to heal from our trauma, we will need to resist grind culture. So I don't want you to think about self care again as what the beauty industry tells us self care is. I want you to see self care as you actually speaking up for yourself and for your siblings. Because this is not only about me speaking up and saying self care is an act of political resistance. This is me saying, we got to slow down. We really truly have to slow down because our society cannot afford for all of us to be unhealthy. We cannot all experience trauma. The system will collapse. It already is we're starting to see that right. So we need space, we need time, and we need support. So why work through our trauma, you might be asking, and I come from a family where, like, my grandmother knows that I'm a psychologist. And, and she's still like I would much rather, at any point in time, go to my grandmother, then CSI colleges and I'm like, yes, we're under those are still healers right. Any way you want to see it, whatever you can tap into, but tap into those healing strategies. And if you don't want to do it for you do it for your children and those around you. Because we know from the field of epigenetics that trauma can actually damage the genes and ourselves. And I said that during the last presentation I gave at the Latino educational family summit that if we're not doing it for us because we don't believe in in slowing down we like to work we're passionate about the work then we got to do it for people. Because that damage that we experienced that trauma that embeds in our bodies can be passed down intergenerational it can be passed down from us to our children and then to our children's children. I'm going to repeat that again because I think sometimes people think that that's like soft science you know like it's like oh you know, oh trauma we got to heal know this is like proven scientifically that trauma embeds in the body and we can pass it down. So if we don't heal through our trauma right now. Then, are we really thinking considering the repercussions that this could have to those we love for those we love. So we also know that we got to work on our emotional health, because the good news is that just like trauma can be passed down and intergenerational also resilience can be passed down intergenerational. So if we work on our emotional health that's that's why it's so great that there are some systems of healing that exist that we can tap into. Because then that's work that we're doing not only for us, but for those who come next for future generations. And I know that there are some change makers in the room I know that some of you are volunteers that's what I was told, maybe some activist. And for those of us who are doing work on the ground. Being good at tracking our own levels of stress and healing through our trauma is particularly important so for you. Self care must be prioritized, because you're likely volunteering or helping on top of everything else that you're doing right so maybe volunteering is just another role that you're playing on top of maybe your full time job or part time job on all of your other personal and social cultural identities. For so for those of you who are helpers, it can be easy to feel like your energy is depleted. Does anybody feel like their energy is somewhat depleted right now. Yeah, yeah, like let's own it let's own it. And we got to get better at that right because again grand culture tells us that we got to look like fresh up here, you know, looking perfect, and no, no, you know dark circles under our eyes. But it's inevitable, because the system is stretching us. It's stretching stretching stretching it's pressing pressing pressing. So I know sometimes I do. So we have to practice self care and I got to tell you that I'm also practicing right alongside of you. So for those people who are psychologists and they're like we got this that's not. Like, I'll let you in into a secret like we are all trying to self care right now. So, I have a comment here that says profile as a fourth generation Mexicana from a multi generational migrant working family. How can I undo what I've learned up early working hard. Don't complain. Keep working. Yes. Oh man, that resonates with me that resonates with me. And then can we just add the imposter syndrome to that. Right because in this society that tells us that, you know, our worth is, you know, like a white supremacy in that presentation that I gave recently about white supremacy culture being a racial caste system and this caste system basically, there's more worth assigned to white people, and less worth assigned to black indigenous people of color. Within that social structure then we feel like we have to work super hard to let others see us to let others appreciate our value. And what I think it's important for us to start changing and thinking about and working through is that we don't have to prove anything to anyone. And we need and I'm going to walk you through through an exercise right now, so that we can understand that that is just a seed that has been planted by white supremacy systems that we are not worthy enough that we have to try super hard that we have to wake up in the morning before everybody else sweat, sweat, sweat, sweat. And then rest and wake up the next day. And for our people, like what I've been thinking about recently is, and this is also is not, you know, Danny's idea this I'm completely influenced by by radical theorists and race theorists is that to ask ourselves the questions. Would my ancestors want me to be working like this. Would my ancestors want me to be grinding to the point where my stress levels are so high that I'm starting to feel sick. Our parents or grandparents. If you come from a family, like we've been discussing right now. They've probably hustled enough for many different generations. So it is okay for us to slow down and resist the system. And we'll walk through that in just a second. Angela Davis for instance reminds us that we have lost too many of our visionary leaders and activists to exhaustion to depression and to drugs. I don't want us to lose some of our community members to stress to illness. So in the process of dismantling these systems of exploitation, we must care for ourselves, because social justice work is about longevity. So we need to work through that message that tells us that if we slow down we're being lazy, because a lot of us maybe heard that message right. We need to listen to the don't be sitting down get up, you know, like, clean up. And we got to remember that this is about social justice this this resistance against the system. It is about us trying to fight for a better society. So, again, going back to Angela Davis she said that people power means that we are our own most precious resource. She for instance here some leaders I see my belly for instance I see her here on my gallery. And for me it's like she's she's one of our Latinx leaders right. She's a precious resource for the community. If she were to get sick then what would that mean for the movement so we, we want all of us to be healthy we want we got to take care of ourselves for our own people. We cannot afford to burn ourselves and each other out. Don't get sick my belly please don't. So we want to fortify our team and our movements for change. We have to be strong, and we have to be healthy. And this is especially important if we're working in areas where we hold or serve as a container for people who are coming in and talking to us about their trauma right. So, how do we do it. Danny that sounds all very beautiful. You're quoting Angela Davis and Audrey Lord, but how do we do it. So there are no quick tips to deprogramming from grind culture. It is a practice and so we have to start with understanding that we are worthy of rest. Whoo. Okay, I'm going to repeat that, because it's hard for us sometimes to remember that we are worthy of rest, and we are not machines. Maybe some people want us to be machines right maybe some people want us to be picking crops or want us to get there at six o'clock in the morning and send, you know, 20 emails and one day if not 100. We are not machines. When you say I'm worthy of rest. That is a commitment to dignity to care and to justice. So let's practice that right now. So I would love for you to read the next slide slowly with me. And you could just do it with your internal voice. But if you could just say, to heal. I must rest. I am not a machine. I don't have to earn rest. Rest is a primal need. Productivity is not exhaustion. I deserve rest. I am worthy of rest. I don't lose my commitment when I rest. In many cultures, and I know in the specific Latinx culture where I come from, we were taught to be sacrificial, like to give ourselves away, because that's that's the thing that we need to do for our families. But with again with a combination of, of, you know, cultural psychology counseling across cultures and other kinds of sciences we're learning that we can be mindful and respectful of our cultural values. While also taking care of our health. And that are well it does and our fields and tia San Primo's would rather have us be healthy and live a long life than be exhausted and sick. So how did that feel when you were saying that I learned these words from Trisha her see, and I recommend that you look her up. I think sometimes we go to like a lot of psychologists and people who have like their PhDs and sides, but she's got a PhD in the world of napping. So she's known as the napping Bishop the nap Bishop, she's amazing so follow her on Instagram. And whenever you're having a bad day, which when people were raising their hands I would imagine that this has already been probably a busy week. And it's just Wednesday, just pull her up and go to some of her means they're they're amazing and they will help you restore. So, um, the truth is, we need to be well rested for liberation to happen. That's the summary, we need to be well rested for liberation to happen. The way, and we can actually in which we can actually threaten a system that extracts value from our labor that exploits us is to slow down and rest. There's no benefits from us not slowing down. And in a system where a product is prioritized, where are what we do what we pick, how many emails we send when that's prioritized and not our relationships. We need to learn how to have difficult conversations with those that are hoping to extract more value from us. And maybe they might be our own colleagues right. And our society also hasn't taught us how to have these difficult conversations with each other. We need to lean into those uncomfortable conversations, because if we want to dismantle the systems of power that exploit us. We need to use rest and relationships as a foundation for the tearing down of the current system in order to build one new system that works for all of us right. So with Audrey Lord definition of self care in mind. I want to ask you the following question. Are you currently using your body to uphold systems of power. In other words, are you actively participating in grind culture. Or are you disrupting it by slowing down and resting. So for instance, here with with member by the Negro right he was talking about and we're talking about a fourth generation Mexicano. Trying to figure out how to maybe integrate these ideas with our culture of pressing pressing pressing. So, I think that maybe what we could think about is we're not going to wake up one day, and then be perfect at self care. And maybe the next step is, what is the next right loving thing for you to do for yourself. And what I can, you know, I can't guarantee but I'm pretty confident that your family the people who love you those around you are going to appreciate that so ask yourself this question do you use your body to uphold systems of power, or to disrupt them. So I want us to just listen to our queen to Angela Davis about her ideas about self care. She's interested in making change in the world. Also has to learn how to take care of herself, himself, their selves. For a long time, activists did not necessarily think that it mattered to take care of themselves in terms of what they need in terms of mental self care. Corporal self care, spiritual self care. I know that there were some people who emphasized it. I'm thinking about one of the leaders of the Black Panther Party, Erica Huggins, who began to practice yoga and meditation in the 70s. And she encouraged many people including Huey Newton and Bobby Zeal to join that practice. I think they did a little bit of it. But I think a movement would have been very different and we understood the importance of that kind of self care. Personally I started practicing yoga and meditation when I was in jail. But it was more of an individual practice. Later I had to recognize the importance of emphasizing the collective character of that work on the self. Well it means that we're able to bring our entire selves into the movement. It means that we incorporate into our work as activists ways of acknowledging and hopefully also moving beyond trauma. It means a holistic approach I think. I think longevity is important and not simply individual longevity. It is equally important to recognize that as we develop our movement today we're creating a terrain for the emergence of new activists. And what we do today has an impact on what younger people will be able to do tomorrow. I think we have to imagine ourselves as connected to people who came before us and to those who will come after us. Black people all over the world have been subjected to the most unimaginable forms of violence, slavery, torture. But at the same time, and this is what black people have offered the world, we've also produced beauty, music and art. And I think that the self care that gets produced by black people recognizes the connection between struggle and art and beauty and the imagination. Okay, so if there is an appropriate example of commitment to dignity to care and to justice and how it must be ongoing. I think that that is Angela Davis right we've seen her for years and years be the amazing radical fears woman that she is. But the truth is that we are not Angela Davis right and what I see in my clinical practice is that often I see folks who are coming into counseling because they're they're feeling burnout. And it's not just exhaustion it's more than that. And it becomes clear that burnout is in some ways kind of like associated with a different pattern where we we we crash then we rest, then we recover and then we crash again so it's almost like very circular. So after my clients rest sometimes not everybody, they go back to participating in grind culture. So again the practice of self care must be ongoing. If we really want to build bigger, bolder, more resilient systems. We have to do this consistently. So, where do we start. For those of you who might be thinking, well Danny, I'm interested in figuring out how to use my body as a tool for liberation. Where do I start. Well my suggestion is first to just turn inward and to turn into yourself and ask, what do I need right now. And I know that this is really simple but I don't think that we often do it, or we just stop and we say, what do I need right now. We're multitasking right like right now, maybe some of you are listening to the presentation while you're checking emails, or maybe you're like texting someone else. And for you that's like actually managing and trying to coordinate things because that's the way in which you need to take care of yourself, and that's totally okay. But there needs to be space in which we can create some silence, where we actually turn to ourselves and ask, what do I need. And then again do the next right loving thing. I do this because we need you. I see here that member by the negative set for instance what we know this world. Yeah, we definitely know this world I couldn't agree more. Like I know exactly the world that we live in we all have different experiences, but we know what we're up against. But does it have to be that way. So, if you are not okay with the world being this way. And you want your body to be used as a tool for liberation, then we need you, and your health is a critical component for this movement for social justice. And yes it will look very different during the pandemic. We've had to figure out a way to adapt self care, but it is necessary right. What else can you do. To reconnect with your purpose. So when I wake up in the morning and I'm not saying that the way that I do it it's it's perfect. There's, all of us will have our own little strategies. But when I wake up in the morning. The first thing that I ask is, to what end, like, why engage in the work that I do, because the truth is that all of you and I don't know your positions but it could be if you work in government or if you're, you know, and into community organizing. Maybe you could be tapping into other sources of revenue right like maybe you could be making much more money, or maybe you could be working fewer hours. But why do you choose to do it. To what end. To be connecting with that purpose of what are the values that guide my work. Why did I choose to have this job in particular. Why am I choosing to volunteer. What is my enduring sense of purpose could probably be helpful in helping us kind of ground ourselves anchor ourselves. And if you're having trouble remembering this purpose. What I would recommend is that you reach out that you reach back and that you reach forward so what do I mean by that. Reach out. Go to the people that you love. If you have forgotten what that purpose is and ask. Hey, do you remember why I got this job because sometimes we might be like, why did I get this job. As do you remember what brought me into that role in the first place. So reaching back could also be maybe talking to your ancestors, talking to people that, you know, have paved the way, and asking for more clarity about why it is that you're choosing to be on this path. And reaching forward is to also imagine what your life would look like, if you were more passionate about the work again. So just reconnecting with that purpose. In a society that is not prioritizing our healing, the programming involves repeating things over and over again. So let's summarize what self care is. So self care is a framework and series of practices. It's an exercise. It's not something that we wake up with something that we need to try out. It is about centering yourself in a world that doesn't encourage you to step back or to step aside. So with some of the mamas for instance that I work with, I know that this is something that comes up frequently, like the feeling guilty about self caring, right, because you could be doing something else. So self care is about learning that you don't have to be everywhere at once. And I know that that comes from a place of privilege as someone who doesn't have children. But again, we have to take care of ourselves. It's like, again, that analogy of the airport, the plane mask, right, you got to put it on first before you take care of your children. So it is also important for us to understand that we cannot just say I'll take care of everything and then as an add on, I'm going to take care of myself. You have to take care of yourself first, and then take care of others for sustainability. So your children, your friends and those you love, I know would want you to live a healthy life self care is not about being selfish. But the truth is that self care is actually about community care. And I think that this is where we start feeling more comfortable right because again as a lot of next woman sometimes it's difficult for me to think about self care. But one of the biggest enemies of social justice movements is burnout. So our community, the movement needs us to be practicing this so I'll give you a story in 2010. I was completing my fourth year at San Antonio's rape crisis center where I provided counseling services to survivors of sexual assault. And I was working with little ones that had experienced sexual assault. And I'll be honest, I really got to the point where I felt like if someone added one more person to my client case load that I was going to get physically sick. And that's what happens when you hold on to other people's trauma. And I know that some of you are actually doing that right now. So that year in 2010, I was constantly experiencing like rapid heart palpitations I was having trouble sleeping. I was hyper vigilant like constantly looking around. And my younger sister when she visited me from Mexico, that year she said, like it a manna, like I am worried about you, you look exhausted. And as the kind sister that she is, she did it of course really well, because I've talked to people about how I like to receive feedback and so I tell her you need to tell me something. Like just be gentle right so she did it with a lot of love, which was really helpful because then I could listen actively to what you needed to tell me. So talking I realized that I wasn't just exhausted that I was actually burnout like burnt out, and I couldn't necessarily like actually absorb the information that my clients were telling me so I was not being helpful to my clients. I was not a pleasant person to be around. And so I had to reconnect with my purpose right. And maybe it will help if we define burnout first. So burnout is more than just exhaustion that comes from working too hard. Burnout is often paired with frustration and a loss of connection to pleasure and passion in the work and activities we perform. So if you have a burnout. What does it look like for you. When you're like, I think I'm there. How do you know that. Do you have like a pink flag that tells you you're about to get there. What is your red like when do you know it's time. I'm officially burnt out. So, yeah, I see people say I can't get out of bed. When you're already sick. Yes, yes. It's also really dangerous for those of us that have chronic illnesses right because then that puts us in a really vulnerable position. And, and what sucks is also that burnout and overworked people have the potential to cause harm to others, and also to the movement right the movement for social justice and we've seen this with some activists that sometimes they're at a point where they're burnout, and then they start getting snappy, and that doesn't help anyone. If we want to welcome enough people to our movements to volunteer to engage in mutual aid and really transform our world, we have to make the experience of volunteering of being in mutual aid irresistible. So if you want to bring people into your circle and say, volunteer. And what do you need to convey like what is the energy that you need to put out there. Because, in fact, justice work is irresistible right like once you get on it, it's really difficult to stop. But we, we, we want to attract people to our movement if we're looking exhausted like, why would we want to do that. If I see you exhausted, what I really want to work at your institution at your organization. So if you're leading a team. Remember that institutions don't start movements. So you're building, you know the little sign that people see when you're they're driving around that that won't start the movement that won't get the work done, but the people in your team will. So how do you help create spaces for healing. So let's pause and read this together. Centering myself disrupts the status quo. Me as a brown woman, who's an immigrant who has seen her grandmother, her mother, her father hustle, slowing down is disrupting the status quo. Centering myself is good for the movement. Centering myself is good for those who love me. Centering myself is required to heal. So poet young people encourages us to heal ourselves, he said, heal yourself, not just so you can thrive, but to ensure that people who cross your path in the future are safer from harm. So if you're a leader, you got to hear you heal yourself because there are a lot of people under you. So how can you prevent burnout from happening in your team. So first recognizing that the conditions creating a culture of overwork have to be like brought to the surface, you have to shed light on those conditions creating a culture of overwork so ask yourself, are we affirming all aspects of someone's identity. As partners who they are as parents as family members etc. Do we understand that they are more than just our colleagues who come from a to five. It would also help to create opportunities for social connection so if you're a leader and are creating opportunities for social connection, and people are not showing up. To be honest, there are times when like, where I work they will have like happy hours and things like that and sometimes I just don't want to show up because too much extraction has already happened so I don't want to dedicate more time to that. But it would be really helpful if the institution could turn and ask hey what what can we do so that next time you could, you can actually feel like really excited about showing up. So being transparent and how you can work together is also critically important. I would like to ask, are our interactions as a team, replicating the kind of community that we hope to create. So in this process of creating a new system in which people are liberated, a community that is in line with our values, a community that really is able to work together, even and especially in moments of crisis. Is that community already existing in my institution, keeping at 100, like asking yourself that question right. And we also have to be honest about the conditions in which our people are volunteering. We have volunteers there so, for instance, when when I go down to the border I take students to Matamoros in Mexico to work with migrants and asylum seeking families. And before we actually go out there. I keep it very real with them about what they might see about how hot it might be how sometimes it might be difficult to find resources. How we need to take care of ourselves with water with food. How can we nourish our bodies and then they get to decide what they're going to get into right. So are we being truly transparent with the people who work under us about what they're getting into. Or do we just want to bring them into the circle. Do we just want to hire folks to fill those positions. So the fourth and courage others to rest and eat. I have one colleague who when we start meeting so she, she identifies as Chinese. She's second generation Chinese. And instead of saying, how are you all doing good morning, she just asks, Have you eaten today. So as a team. How are you considering all the ways that your bodies need to be nourished in those high intensity moments. So, in my culture in Latinx culture, the first thing that my grandmother and mother asked when I walk into the room is, Mejita ya comiste. Have you eaten same thing. So why are we not doing that in our workplace. How can we treat our co workers, like our families treat us how can we replicate within our institution the types of communities that we want to create. Then the fifth point is to create opportunities for appreciation and celebration, like we need a ton of celebration one of the things that I love doing is going to Sonoma Valley Cinco de Mayo. I love to celebrate and folks we need to celebrate the small victories celebration keeps keeps hope going keeps us, you know, recharged and restore. And for our team when we gather and celebrate, we stay connected to our team's purpose. And so the sixth point is to create a cultural word is okay to give and receive feedback and that's something that I have kind of, you know, in conversations with with people that I frequently work with that I say, Can you just make sure that you let me know if I say something that harms you that hurts you that wounds you to the extent that you can. And just giving people permission to give us to give us feedback can be very healing. So now let's let's finish the presentation by talking about boundary setting right because that's, that's what we often struggle with. When your team or institution is getting ready to launch into emergency respond emergency responses, what kinds of conversations are you having with each other to take care of each other's health. So how do you decide who goes out to the field who takes care of maybe some responsibilities. Think about that for just a second. I'm going to go to Jason and don't can't there. Those are two experts on adapting strategy and building power and crisis. They encourage us to ask our team members of following two questions to decide who is the appropriate person for the job. So they tell us that we need to ask our people, the people who are volunteering who feels ready and clear about the purpose of our mission. Sometimes it's cloudy right especially right now when we're so tired, we got to ask out of all of us who feels ready and clear not foggy but clear about the purpose of our mission, or who feels foggy ambivalent tired and stuck. I don't know about you but I'm rarely asked those questions, which is launch. And then we struggle. So, slowing down and asking these questions is important. Those who feel ready and clear about the purpose of the mission, then they can lead that initiative and they probably will be much more effective. So boundaries. I just mean Cheyenne a wellness coach based in the US she's great at explaining boundary setting, and I don't know about you but I need like easy analogies to understand complex ideas and for someone like me who kind of falls into default thinking of grind culture. I need to like clearly grasp the concept of boundary setting because I've been pretty bad at it. This is a story of how one day, due to a variety of personal experiences, she started thinking about how it felt to have people not respect her boundaries. And she talked about feeling like she was like a sugar jar in a kitchen so just picture that for a second follow me. She said, think about the kitchen being your personal space so she thought the kitchen space personal space. The jar is my boundaries, and the sugar inside of that jar, the sweet stuff was her energy, her time for money and her availability. And at that point in her life she shares that she felt like people were coming into her space so figuratively her kitchen right they were coming into her kitchen over and over again just basically taking like scoops full of sugar from the jar. And again, the sugar being figuratively her energy. And while they would scoop it, then all of that sugar would disperse around the floor leaving her like tired and exhausted and overwhelmed, used unseen not heard alone. And she said that no matter what she did no therapy or journaling or walking could restore her energy her sugar. Because people just simply came coming for that sugar. Do you ever feel like that, or you're like, I need people to stop coming for my sugar. Please, just, just, just a little bit of time. So before she could get that cup in, you know, to put in through like therapy or walking to replenish her jar. Someone was already waiting there with a scoop to take some of that sugar out. Well, she said, you know, we sometimes think that we have multiple jars because we have different identity so there's a jar for when I'm a student, and there's a jar for when I'm a volunteer and one for when I'm a mom. But the truth is that we only have one jar, but this white supremacy culture has taught us that we have the things are very linear right. So we only have one jar, because there's only one of us. So everything has to come out of that jar and sometimes the problem is that we compare ourselves to others. Like we look around and we're like, dang, like, this person is doing this and that and that and that and I know you asked me like during last presentation like how do you do all of that. You know, and I say well, I have a roof over my head. I don't have children. You know, I don't know like and it and some of us have like our jars can be a little bit larger than others. And certainly like my jar is not as big as other activists or other organizers or some other people so we should not be comparing ourselves to other folks whose jars are like super large right. So she teaches us about the importance of putting lids on our jars and requiring others to ask permission before they can come in to our kitchen and definitely before they can take in the sugar. So teaching people to respect to respect and sometimes we have to demand teaching them to respect our boundaries around how much of our energy they can take is boundary setting, and that is the healthy thing to do. So as a black woman, one of the things that she talks about is that history has made people feel like they are entitled to taking as much sugar as they as they want from people of color. And that is going to be especially hard for us to be doing to put a lid on that jar and to say, at this point in time, you don't have permission to come in and get some of the sugar that that is okay so that's the presentation self care is community care and a part of us engaging in community care is thinking about our own healing processes as an act of resistance as an act of resisting this grind culture that is making us pretty sick. And just like I'll end with saying that. I think, like, I'm confident 100% that we can do it. I'm 100% confident that we if we wanted to we could do it. We just have to learn it's a practice again it's not something that we're born with it is a skill that we have to build. So, thank you so much for inviting me I really appreciate you all, and then I'll turn it over to Danielle again. Thank you so much, Dr. Dominguez that was a fantastic presentation. I am now going to turn it over to the members of our board who are present to see if you have any questions for Dr. Dominguez. Hi, I just want to say thank you so much. I realized that my, my camera was off for that and please don't take that. Anyway, other than I was doing a little self care, I actually had a little bit of dinner. That was my, that was my treat this evening was to was to eat a little bit earlier, and, and just really was trying to absorb everything I find sometimes on zoom that I see myself in that on that camera and I'm distracted by where you know how how's my hair. Oh my God those those glasses are awful, all of these things these these negative self talk in my head so I wanted it off so that I could really listen to you. And I found everything that you were saying was wonderful. Maybe a little too self reflective we'll find out next week if I'm still doing one of the things that I was thinking about not doing starting next week. So, and I really enjoyed your analogies. Where do you, where do you get your information. I mean, it sounds like when you're a student, always in your life so you're probably reading and listening and, and actively taking in information but all of these were all very new to me. Some of some of these quotes some of these sayings. And so, you know, you mentioned one that is on Instagram, but where where's where some other things because I thought they were so wonderful. Yeah, no thank you I appreciated and you know it's interesting because one of the things that helps me about having like one foot in academia and teaching, like what I call the white ivory tower right where things are like really community and people use all of these fancy words and sometimes I'm like yeah what what does that mean, and then having like one foot in community is that I've realized and I said this in other presentations. And I've learned this from community organizers that community organizers are way ahead of us with analogies and with understandings because they're deeply rooted in community and so. One of the things that I've been trying to do is like I will read and write for academic purposes, and then also I find that a lot of the things that really replenish my soul is actually learning from organizers on the ground and so a lot of these people come from organizing organizations, healing justice movements, emergent strategies so you know people who are thinking about building new systems. And so, there is this podcast that I really recommend, and it's called irresistible and it's about community organizers healers people in coming together and trying to help us understand why it is so important for us to heal ourselves because I think sometimes people think that folks who are hoping to kind of you know, when people say talk about like disrupting and dismantling. Maybe some folks think like oh my god there's so much anger in that and there's so much. And we talk about you know different emotions being really helpful for for us to kind of propel the movement forward. And a part of that is also being like gentle with ourselves and so that podcast itself talks a lot about how to heal from some of the struggles that we've encountered. And also, I really like to learn from within the healing space. Trans women of color, black indigenous women of color because because of their own experiences and the intersectionality of their other struggles of of who they are. They have a very unique perspective and so I find that they're often underrepresented in academic spaces and so irresistible is one of those. And then also the good ancestor, Leila saw its work is beautiful and so anything that she quotes and references. I, you will more than likely see me cited in my presentations, but thank you I appreciate it and I'm so glad that you're self caring. And I see there's a question as well there. Thank you. Thank you. Robert's go ahead. I just want to say thank you as well. And I appreciate it. A different take on self care. Also, I want to say I had my video office as well but the reason was because they always seem to freeze. I mean, thank you. Thank you member Roberts I appreciate it. And thank you for being here. You know, I think it's, it's important for us just also thinking from different social cultural identities and you know, however it is that people identify. There I think different ideas about who's entitled to self care and who's not entitled to self care. And I think that because of these dominant social discourses about what self care is and people thinking that it's about like putting face masks on or. Sometimes, you know, male identified folks might think that this is just not for them that it's too soft and it's actually really important that all of us learn about self care so I'm glad to see different identities in the room. Right. See, I see member Richardson actually unmuted herself to you did you want to ask a question or I just wanted to appreciate your grandma who's who may not want to go to a mental health healer but to a traditional healer or. I know, and my profession as a mental health professional I work with a lot of people of different cultures and spiritual practices and they utilize that as well and also just I appreciate the presentation and the fact that we have to be reminded and I feel like sometimes we need to be given permission to take care of ourselves as moms and spouses or partners or aunts my daughter's looking at me says her birthday. We need to give ourselves that permission to just do nothing. As part of self care. Yes, and I love that, like just doing nothing, you know, I and congratulations to your to your daughter, and I'm glad that you enjoyed the presentation and thank you for for acknowledging my grandmother she's like an amazing ancestor and so I've learned a lot from her. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other members see my golly I just want to make sure other members. Okay, go ahead. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Dominguez it's just always like, every time I learned something new, well many, something's new, and I just want to audit all of your classes, pretty much. And he said that, you know, for especially women of color that work in institutions, you know, reference grind culture right. And I think the pandemic has especially affected women of color and leadership and women of color in these sort of spaces that we've not traditionally been in. What sort of do you have any specific advice or some language around, you know, how do you talk to the systems that value, you know, grinding, and and to some extent, you know, I think, I know I can speak for myself. I value it because I get sort of like this instant gratification right and to member by the negative point growing up where it's just like hustle, hustle, hustle, get up, go, go, go. You know, how do you, but when I know it's on training yourself but as a person of color in a position of leadership and in an institution, do you have any sort of like specific thoughts and advice around that. Yeah, I mean, this is going to suck. But it's like there's a part of me that really first wants to because there's like no, you know, concrete answer but one is just like normalizing how difficult it can be to be a woman in a position of power in a patriarchal system and I know that people are going to go Danny with her patriarchy and no but truly, you know, it's to be a woman and also one of color in a position of leadership. It can be very challenging and I, I've had conversations with people around how sometimes it feels like we frequently have to be like tiptoeing around because, you know, people are ready to be to maybe pull you down from those positions of power. And so first like normalizing and validating how difficult it can be to constantly feel like you have to perform to keep that position right so that's the first thing the second thing is to try to also understand and this is really really difficult but that we in ways are also paving the path for those that are coming along and so I would imagine that maybe you already have people who are working with you, maybe in collaboration. So I would model that to be a Latinx woman in a position of leadership that the way that you execute power is going to look very different from the way in which other people execute power. So, one of the things that, you know, I've seen is and a lot of authors have written about this again critical race theories about how there's a tendency when they do an analysis of men who have been in positions of power to hoard power. And when they do an analysis of the ways in which women execute power there's power sharing. And so, if we start doing it, and then people start learning from us about the benefits of sharing power of being much more relational of, you know, the, the, the idea of how much like, I truly believe that we could be more creative and more innovative when people rest when people sleep when people take care of themselves. So when we actually start engaging in that practice, it's going to be very I think difficult for people to not see the value of us prioritizing that relational aspect. And so I would say, we kind of have to brace for the repercussions that the system is going to have because boundary setting has repercussions and consequences right when you say, No, I'm sorry. I don't think that I can do that right now because I have to go pick up my daughter from theater for ballet or whatever. Then, maybe they might think well you know when I hired her I told her that she needed to do this and that and that. There are repercussions and consequences of us exercising our boundaries, but then also people are looking, and our daughters are looking and you know, so we have to kind of come to terms with, what are we willing to sacrifice to tear down the system and create one that works for all of us. Thank you. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and open it up to members of our audience. If you have any questions, please feel free to raise your hand. And we'll be able to unmute you and have you ask your question. Any of our visitors have anything that they want to ask. I see all three of them out there. There's no questions from our audience. Any other comments? All up questions from the board before we wrap up. Thank you so much Dr. Dominguez for your presentation and for your time with us this evening. As always it was amazing. And I truly appreciate it. There were several times where I found myself just giggling a little bit because I like recognize like myself and what you were saying. Like the whole sugar jar thing and people taking from your jar. Just today, I was trying to get something very important done for Magali and my husband and the daughter kept coming in and interrupting me. And I'm like, Oh my God, you guys are killing me. Leave me alone. I've had to tell you this repeatedly over and over again. So when you were talking about that, that just made me giggle a little bit. But yeah, thank you. I love that because it's like saying that voicing that is like, okay, we exist within a system where we're also mothers and partners and not just someone who works for my daughter. Yeah, exactly. Thank you again so much. We appreciate it and hopefully we can have you back in the future. Thank you. Take care. Thank you. Bye bye. Okay, so I know chair graves had one additional thing that she wanted to say before we conclude the meeting for this evening. Thank you. Thank you everybody for indulging me in this unplanned but given the scope of everything that we were just presented with and we were absorbing I really wanted to make mention of member Harper. And if you if you don't know, last week it became public knowledge through, I believe it was his sister that that he is ill that he's not doing well. And that at this point we don't know when he is going to be able to do well. There is some information about how we can write a thank you note in his address and I'm sorry I don't have that right here to include in the chat. Being that member Harper is one of the most committed community oriented change makers that I know in in our community and many, many other people know, I would like us to take a moment of silence and send him radiating all of the powerful energy and healing energy that we may have in that moment of silence in hopes that his health can be better moving forward. I know everybody has a distinct relationships with member Harper. I can remember a few months ago when he shared his story with us. I hope that we can all reflect on that. And that the information where we can write get well card and our best wishes to him. I hope that you all take advantage of that that you help to spread the word, and that the avalanche of well wishes and healing thoughts. Help him to recover quickly. Thank you, Chair graves. Thank you everyone who was able to make it tonight there will be the recording of the presentation available. Hopefully tomorrow or by the end of the week on the website. And we will see you next month, June 23 at 6pm. Thank you.